


A Sentimentally Grand Gesture

by afteriwake



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, Christmas Presents, Eventual Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper, F/M, POV Sherlock Holmes, Pining Sherlock, Secret Santa, Sherlock Has A Crush, Sherlock Holmes Has a Heart, Sherlock Holmes and Feelings, Sherlock Holmes is Bad at Feelings, Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper Fluff, Sherlock-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-02
Updated: 2015-12-02
Packaged: 2018-05-04 15:33:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5339315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sherlock is invited to take part in a Secret Santa gift exchange that Lestrade is arranging for those associated with Scotland Yard, and he is given Molly’s name in the draw. After getting the advice of his friends he breaks the rules and goes for something grand and sentimental hidden inside something practical, though at first glance it appears that his gift is not well received. He doesn’t count on Molly discovering the sentimental gift before they leave the party, however, and her reaction to that is much more to her liking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Sentimentally Grand Gesture

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the second fic in my [Christmas Fic Countdown](http://penaltywaltz.tumblr.com/post/134408122533/christmas-fic-countdown-2015) and the prompt was " _i got you for secret santa so i got you this really expensive but sentimental gift that you’ve always wanted, hoping you’ll never find out it’s from me - and that i’ve been in love with you 1234567 years_." My mom picked this one and asked for a Sherlock/Molly fic and so I obliged.

Molly Hooper.

He had to come up with a gift for Molly, of all people.

When Lestrade suggested he be a bit more festive, involve himself more with the people around him, participate in the Secret Santa exchange, he decided it wouldn’t be so bad. It had a £200 limit since everyone was feeling a bit extravagant this year, due to a good case closure rate and Moriarty being brought down a second time and all. All thanks to him, of course, but he’d stayed mum about that. He’d shied away from publicity as much as possible this go round. He didn’t want it, didn’t care for it, didn’t need it. For once, Scotland Yard was obliging. So he figured taking part in something he was being asked to be a part of wouldn’t hurt, especially when Lestrade said John and Molly would be in the draw too.

He’d hoped he’d be lucky enough to get John.

But he’d gotten Molly instead, and that had posed problems. He couldn’t just unload a gift certificate on her like he’d planned if he’d gotten someone other than John. The gifts that came to mind that a woman typically loved seemed so…impersonal. So not right for Molly. And he wasn’t sure how to ask for help without letting their mutual friends know he had gotten her as his recipient. He didn’t want her to accidentally find out, after all.

Because if he got her the _right_ gift, the _perfect_ gift, she might figure out the true depth of his feelings, and he wasn’t sure he wanted that.

It was easier to be friends. It was safer, of course; safer in the sense that there was less of a target on her back, for one, but also safer in that she couldn’t hurt him as much. If he let her in as a friend, she was not all the way in his heart, and if she hurt him or if she left then he could still move on. But if he let her in as a girlfriend, as a lover, as a wife somewhere down the line, if he let her in fully and she then broke it…he wasn’t sure he’d recover. He knew he’d turn back to old ways and that was not beneficial to anyone.

He didn’t want that. No one wanted that.

He knew chances were good she wouldn’t hurt him, though. Chances were better _he_ would hurt _her_. And he didn’t want to do that, either, because he cared for her. He cared for her greatly, more than he cared for himself at times. He was almost sure he loved her, to be quite frank, if he ever wanted to be brave enough to admit it to himself. He just wasn’t sure he could be that brave. If he could be that brave with himself, then maybe he could be that brave with her, and in matters of the heart, he was nothing if but a coward.

But in matters of friendship…well, that was another matter. So long as he could consider her a friend, he could keep her close.

In the end he turned to Mary. Mary, who always had a rather sly look and sparkle in her eye when she spied them together. And Mary’s advice was quite simple: sod the rules, sod the limit, go for the grand gesture. Go for the thing that you know she wants, the thing she’s got her heart set on.

That was the trouble, though. He wasn’t sure what that was. So he’d gone back to his home and retreated into his mind palace, replaying conversations with Molly, going over all of them until it dawned on him what to get her. Her biggest regret, her missed opportunity…it wouldn’t be the same without her mum, he knew that, but perhaps now that time had passed it might hurt less, and she could honor her mother’s memory by making the trip. He went for his laptop and began to look into it. It was going to cost an arm and a leg and he might have to sell a portion of his soul and his freedom to his brother to cover the cost, but it would be worth it.

**\---**

“Gift exchange time!” Donovan said, trying to get everyone’s attention. Most people at the party were too busy with other things, either their food or the rather judiciously spiked rum punch or the conversations they were having with themselves, but a group of Scotland Yard’s finest gathered around the tree that had been put up with presents all around it. Sherlock stood near to the side. Lestrade had not been happy when he’d dropped off Molly’s present this morning before the party, as the most he’d done to the visible present was slap a ribbon on the largest piece of the five piece green American Flyer Pemberly Buckles luggage set. He’d grumbled as he’d shoved it in his office for the time being, and Sherlock had sworn he’d heard “useless practical gift” among the mumblings.

Pity he didn’t know what was inside the cosmetic bag. Of course, if he _did,_ then he’d be upset that Sherlock went nearly ten grand over the upper limit.

He had made Lestrade promise not to tell Molly, though. Lestrade had given him a funny look and agreed. Eventually he’d find out why, of course, but Sherlock didn’t want her to know. He wanted to think it was anything other than what it actually was. He’d rather think it was a gift from all of Scotland Yard for her invaluable help than have her think it was from him, and if he had to blackmail Lestrade into telling her that…well, that wouldn’t be too hard.

Soon there was enough of a crowd gathered that Lestrade felt it was time to begin. “So we have gifts for everyone who put their name in,” he said, wide grin on his face. “Figured we’ll do it all in alphabetical order by last name or…something like that. Whatever order I feel like, basically.”

“Somebody’s had a bit too much punch,” Molly said with a smile, coming up to Sherlock’s side. She had a cup of the aforementioned punch in her hand but it looked like she’d barely touched it.

“Enough rum to stun an elephant?” he asked, giving her a small smile.

“At least,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve had maybe a quarter of this glass and I feel a bit tipsy. I do hope at least a few of the DIs and such are sober because no one who’s had this punch should go out to a scene afterward.”

“A few are,” Sherlock said with a nod as they watched Lestrade hand Donovan a gift bag that contained two jewelry boxes. From their vantage point they could see they held a rather nice looking blue gemstone necklace and bracelet set when she opened them. “I wouldn’t worry about any of the victim’s families having to deal with drunken investigators.”

“Good.” She took another sip and made a face before setting the cup on a desk. “I’m excited to see what I got,” she said with a smile. “I hope it’s something nice. I could use something really nice.”

“What do you mean by nice?” Sherlock asked, trying to seem nonchalant.

“Oh, an expensive bottle of perfume or jewelry. Maybe a nice spa day or something. I don’t know. Something luxurious.” She gave him a smile. “Even a gift certificate to splurge on something would be great.”

He felt a deep pit in his stomach that this would backfire horribly now. “Excuse me,” he said, pulling away to go tell Lestrade _not_ to give Molly the gift, when all of a sudden Lestrade said Molly’s name.

“That’s me!” she said excitedly, eyes sparkling before she made her way up to Lestrade, and internally Sherlock groaned. This was going to be a disaster of epic proportions.

"Well, _your_ Secret Santa gift is a bit bigger than everyone else's," Lestrade said when Molly got up to him. He cast a quick glare at Sherlock, who pretended not to notice. “It’s in my office.”

Molly grinned as Lestrade went to his office and then frowned as he wheeled out two of the wheeled pieces of luggage with two of the bags looped over the handles. "Luggage?" she said, a bit disheartened.

“Maybe it’s a hint you should take some of those vacation days you keep racking up,” Sally said with a frown as Lestrade went to get the last piece.

Molly moved over and fingered the cosmetic bag. “Well, it _is_ nice, I suppose,” she said. “And I like the color. It’s better than the paisley print one I have now. Very smart and stylish.”

“It’s a…I mean, it’s practical, but…” Sally said. She looked down at the two jewelry boxes she had and then handed the box containing the bracelet to Molly. “I know Dimmock was my Secret Santa. He’s got a soft spot for you. I doubt he’d mind if I gave you the bracelet to make up for such a shite gift.”

Sherlock clenched his hand into a fist as Molly took the box. He had to go get some air. He quietly slipped away from the group and made his way to the stairwell to head to the roof. Once he was up there he went to the side of the roof and leaned against it, gazing out over London. He should have known better than to use the Secret Santa exchange to give her a gift like that, to leave it exposed to the ridicule of others. He should have just given it to her in the privacy of her home, broken into her flat early Christmas morning and slipped it under her tree, left the envelope on the tree where she could see it.

This had all been a disaster.

His fingers had been itching for a cigarette and he was tempted to turn around, leave the party and buy a pack and smoke them all, one right after the other, when he heard the door to the stairwell open. He turned to see Molly come over to him. She hadn’t bothered to put on a coat, and as she got closer he could tell she was cold. “You should have put a coat on.”

“Why did you leave?” she asked.

“I had to get some air,” he said.

“You didn’t like what Sally had to say about your gift, did you?” she asked.

He looked surprised. “How did you know it was mine?” he asked.

“I started looking at the luggage more closely and I opened the pocket on the cosmetic bag,” she said with a smile. “I found the cruise ticket. Twenty days from Venice to Barcelona in a double occupancy suite, land tour and cruise. It was the cruise my mum wanted to take with me before she died that we kept putting off. I didn’t tell many people the specifics of it.”

He looked down. “I know it won’t be the same without your mother, but I thought that at least you should get to experience it,” he said.

She moved until she was next to him. “Sherlock, I looked into that cruise. I know that it had to cost nearly ten grand for the cruise alone. That’s a lot of money, well over the limit set for this gift exchange. Much more than the amount I spent on the gift for you.”

He looked surprised. “What gift?”

“You left before Lestrade brought it out,” she said. “He arranged it all and he did it on purpose. You got my name, I got yours. I think he was trying his hand at being matchmaker since clearly Mary wasn’t having any luck.”

Sherlock smiled slightly. “Mary gave me the suggestion for making the grand gesture.”

“Well, then I suppose I should thank her,” Molly said with a smile. She was quiet for a moment. “The cruise was booked for two people, correct?”

He nodded. “I thought you’d like to take a friend with you. Perhaps Donovan, or Mary, if you think John can survive without her for twenty days.”

She reached over and took his hand in hers. “Would you be interested in seeing Italy, Greece and Spain with me?”

“It isn’t until August,” he said, grasping her hand in his. “Are you sure you’re going to want to be in my company still?”

“I definitely think I’ll want to be in your company then,” she said, moving closer to him. He looked down at her and saw her looking up at him with a warm smile on her face and love in her eyes and, so he let go of her hand and instead pulled her close against him. Perhaps this had all turned out all right after all.


End file.
